An insulin pump is a fluid infusion device for delivering insulin to people who suffer from diabetes. The insulin pump, which is worn by the user and eliminates the need for multiple daily insulin injections, closely imitates a normally functioning pancreas by releasing hundreds of small doses of insulin each day into the body through an infusion set to regulate blood glucose levels. The rate of delivery of these small doses (i.e., the basal rate) varies from user to user. Indeed, even for a particular user, the basal rate varies throughout the day, and depends upon a variety of factors such as the user's internal clock, metabolism, physical health, and level of stress and exercise. A basal rate profile may divide a day into 24 hourly basal periods each having an associated basal rate. It should be understood that although portions of this description refer to hourly basal rates and basal rate profiles, basal rates may cover more or less than a one hour time period. Indeed, the time periods covered by basal rates in a profile need not be equal. The concepts of the present disclosure are not limited by the duration of an individual basal rate, and the references to hourly basal rates are only exemplary.
Many users use different basal rate profiles for different circumstances. For example, one basal rate profile may be used for weekdays, another profile (i.e., with different hourly basal rates) for weekends, and another profile for vacation days. These different basal rate profiles are designed to accommodate the expected differences in the user's background insulin needs resulting from variations in the user's sleep patterns, levels of exercise and stress, health condition, menstruation cycle status, etc. during such periods.
As the amount and rate of insulin delivery must be tailored to the individual needs of the user, modern pumps are programmable. Some pumps are capable of communicating with a separate computing device, and are compatible with programming software applications that may be executed on the computing device. The programming software permits an operator, such as the user or a health care provider, to customize the settings of the various parameters that affect the pump's operation. These parameters are included in a configuration file that is executed by the pump, and include hourly basal rates, maximum hourly basal rates, bolus dose settings, communication settings, battery settings, and many others.
As suggested by the foregoing, insulin pumps perform relatively complex functions, which directly affect the health of the user. For at least these reasons, configuration software is generally designed to simplify, to the extent possible, the processes for programming pump functions. It is desirable to provide flexibility to the operator in programming the basal rate profiles such that various operator selected groups of basal rates may changed.